Subject: Marketing of Drug By ICN Is Studied By a Grand Jury
Date: Published: 10/24/88 59 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Technology:  
    Marketing of Drug
    By ICN Is Studied
    By a Grand Jury

    LOS ANGELES -- A federal grand jury is investigating
 whether ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its subsidiaries
 committed criminal violations of federal food and drug laws
 by promoting the drug ribavirin as a treatment for AIDS. 
    The latest investigation, disclosed in filings with the
 Securities and Exchange Commission by the Costa Mesa, Calif.,
 company and two subsidiaries, means that ICN is the subject
 of four federal investigations.
    The other inquiries are being conducted by the Food and
 Drug Administration, the Investigations subcommittee of the
 House Energy and Commerce Committee and the SEC. Most of the
 investigations relate, at least in part, to ICN's testing and
 marketing of ribavirin.  The SEC investigation, however, also
 concerns possible stock manipulation and insider-trading
 charges.
    ICN shares fell 62.5 cents Friday to close at $6.50 in New
 York Stock Exchange composite trading.  Shares of ICN's
 72%-owned unit, Viratek Inc., plunged $3.25 to close at
 $12.75 in national over-the-counter trading.
    The FDA earlier asked the Justice Department to look into
 allegations that ICN officials, including Chairman Milan
 Panic, offered to sell ribavirin to doctors as a treatment
 for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, even though the drug
 hasn't been approved for that use.  The grand jury
 investigation stems from the FDA request, according to an
 official working on a separate investigation of ICN. 
    Ribavirin is an antiviral drug that ICN markets as
 Virazole and is approved for use in the U. S. to treat
 respiratory infections.  Tests of its effectiveness when taken
 by AIDS patients have been inconclusive.  However, ribavirin
 is widely available in Mexico and is purchased there by U. S. 
 AIDS patients.
    In a filing with the SEC last week, ICN said a federal
 grand jury for the central district of California, which is
 headquartered in Los Angeles, "issued a subpoena covering a
 broad range of matters, many of which relate to ribavirin."
    ICN said in the filing that it delivered certain documents
 to the grand jury on Oct. 4 and that it is cooperating in the
 investigation and expects to complete the production of
 documents demanded by the subpoena "over the next months."
    A spokesman for ICN said, "It does appear to us that
 there's nothing more here than some old accusations that have
 been previously reported."
    ICN has said it isn't aware of any wrongdoing related to
 its marketing or testing of ribavirin.

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